I’ve been busy this fall working at the Mount Kisco Elementary School Garden with 1st and 3rd graders. This morning’s frost will set the stage for a delicious kale salad that I will share with you below. Kale gets even more delicious as the weather gets cold. That’s because in colder temperatures, plant starches turn into sugars which act as an antifreeze.
Our kale plants were under siege this year by green cabbage and striped cabbage worms. I used this opportunity to teach about the life cycle of butterflies while I meticulously picked off the very hungry caterpillars. We discussed why we wouldn’t want to use chemical pesticides on our kale because we don’t want to poison our food and the birds who may be feasting on the caterpillars.
This recipe was modified from the Pleasantville High School garden program, just a few towns away. We are including sunflower seeds to add a little crunch and also because last week we dissected sunflowers and saw how the edible seed hides in a hard outer shell.
Lemony Quinoa and Kale Salad
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa, should be fluffy.
Good sized bunch of kale, cut into thin ribbons.
Sunflower seeds
Dressing:
Zest of one lemon
Freshly squeezed lemon juice from one lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon raw local honey
2 teaspoons freshly cracked pepper
Directions:
Whisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.
Cut out the tough stem of the kale leaf and stack 2 or 3 leaves on each other.
Roll them up and cut the leaves into long thin strips with scissors
“Massage” the kale ribbons with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt in a large bowl. Kale will shrink by about half the volume–you should end up with about 4 cups–though the specific kale to quinoa ratio is not critical.
Add kale to cooled quinoa, toss. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Sprinkle sunflower seeds on top and serve.
This dish tastes great chilled or at room temperature, though I might add that this salad improves with time.
PS Another way to enjoy this salad it is to pop it into a pan and lightly cook it. I enjoyed it with some other leftover veggies this morning for breakfast and added an egg on top.
